Brands bank on Mickey and friends to drum up sales in Year of the Rat

With the Year of the Rat just around the corner, consumer brands are vying with each other to use popular cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse as their brand ambassadors to reach more Chinese consumers.

"Mickey Mouse stands for optimism, joy and friendship, themes that are familiar for most Chinese consumers," said Kermid Rahman, who is in charge of the consumer product business at the Walt Disney Co for China and South Korea.

On Friday, Disney teamed up with top artists to launch handmade Mickey-themed lanterns in Yu Garden in Shanghai for celebrating the upcoming Lunar New Year. It has also joined hands with Alipay for developing Mickey Mouse-themed red packets or lucky money. Tencent's WeChat platform rolled out its Mickey and Minnie emojis on Friday for users to send Lunar New Year greetings. Disney has also incorporated traditional Chinese cultural elements with many of their designs such as the Kung Fu Mickey images.

The company has worked with over 450 local licensees and witnessed a double-digit growth in terms of the revenue from the licensed products sold in China. China is Disney' fastest growing market for licensed consumer products by revenue in the world.